Titans trade up, pick Michigan State OT Jack Conklin
Jon Robinson hung up the phone about 15 minutes before the start of the NFL draft, having agreed with the Browns on the parameters of his third trade since being named Titans general manager in January.
About five minutes later, he and the rest of the league saw a jarring video posted on Laremy Tunsil’s Twitter account, showing the former Ole Miss left tackle — the presumptive No. 1 overall pick before the Titans shipped the selection to Los Angeles two weeks ago — smoking a bong through a gas mask.
The video had been deleted, as was the Twitter account, long before the Titans traded up to the eighth overall pick Thursday night. But with Tunsil on the board, Robinson puff puff passed.
The Titans selected Michigan State offensive tackle Jack Conklin, who walked onto the Spartans football team as a freshman, and this season, as a redshirt junior, was named a first-team All-American by Sporting News and USA TODAY. Conklin, listed at 6-foot-6 and 325 pounds, started 38 of 39 career games, 35 at left tackle and three at right tackle.
Conklin will likely start at right tackle for the Titans, helping to bolster an offensive line that gave up 54 sacks last season, the most in the league. Quarterback Marcus Mariota missed four games with sprained knees last season as a result of taking hits.
“We’ve liked Jack for a while here now,” Robinson said. “We thought, even spinning back to when I got the job, we talked about tough, accountable, team-first guys, and we thought he embodied that to the nth degree.“
The Titans traded the 15th overall pick, a third-round pick (76th) and a second-round pick next season to the Browns in order to move up to No. 8. Tennessee also received a sixth-round selection (176th) in the deal.
Poll: Rank the Titans' pick of Jack Conklin
“Ever since I went and took a visit down to Tennessee, I fell in love with the program and everything they’re trying to build there,” Conklin said in a conference call with reporters. “And I had a sense after I left that that was going to be the organization I was going to end up with.
“Once I heard the trade go through,” he said, “I was beyond speechless, just so excited, because I just knew they were going to choose me.”
Earlier this offseason, Robinson traded for running back DeMarco Murray and shipped the No. 1 overall selection to the Rams in exchange for a truckload of picks.
The Titans have four picks Friday, including three in the second round (Nos. 33, 43 and 45) and one in the third round (64). They also own a fifth-round pick (140), two sixths (176 and 193) and a seventh (222).
“I still think we’ve got some needs on this football team we need to address,” Robinson said. “And luckily for us, we’ve got the ammunition to position ourselves and try to get the best player available.”
Titans draft profile: Michigan State OT Jack Conklin
Conklin was the second offensive tackle drafted, after Notre Dame's Ronnie Stanley went sixth overall to the Ravens.
The Titans have selected offensive linemen in the first round in three of the last four years, and an offensive player in the first round in six consecutive seasons.
“My foremost job is to … put the guy on the ground,” Conklin said. “I want people to remember they played me. And then the thing I like to do is get up and go back to the huddle and get ready for the next play. I pride myself on being a mauler, but I pride myself, more importantly, on being that guy every play of the game, playing the first snap like I do the last.”
MSU tackle Conklin goes from walk-on to 'dominant'
Conklin’s addition provides Mariota with bookend tackles from the Big Ten, and allows former Michigan lineman Taylor Lewan, the 11th overall pick in 2014, to continue developing at left tackle.
The Titans drafted right guard Chance Warmack 10th overall in 2013.
“We have a lot to improve on up there, as we do in a lot of places,” Titans coach Mike Mularkey said. “But again … a lot of the criticism on the line and the sacks and everything that was put on the line, it wasn’t all the line. It was a lot of things that took place for what happened with the protections. And everybody was included, including myself. They’re going to get better. We expect that with the changes we’ve made in a number of different ways. And this is a good change, to bring in a player like this.”
What the Titans will be looking for Friday in NFL draft
Tunsil, who has been embroiled in a legal dispute with his stepfather stemming from a domestic violence incident, was selected by the Dolphins with the 13th pick.
The Browns used the 15th pick, acquired from the Titans, to draft Baylor wide receiver Corey Coleman.
The Rams, as expected, used the first overall pick in the draft, also acquired from the Titans, to select Cal quarterback Jared Goff.
“I don’t know what it did for 31 other teams,” Robinson said about the Tunsil video. “I think that we had earmarked Conklin for a while now and he was a guy that, you saw his comments there in Chicago, about how well the visit went here with us. We just felt like it really clicked and it was a good marriage for us.”
Reach Jason Wolf at jwolf@tennessean.com and follow him on Twitter at @JasonWolf and on Instagram at TitansBeat.